Chronicling the rise and fall of one of the world's most secretive and wealthy Jewish families, FAITH AND FORTUNE: THE REICHMANN STORY tells the epic tale of a dynastic family that acquired staggering wealth, only to lose it all in a gamble of astonishing proportions at London's Canary Wharf.

Although ultra-Orthodox, the Reichmann's became one of the dozen wealthiest families in the world, their property holdings constituting the greatest real estate empire the world had ever seen. They used their riches to recreate the pious world of the shtetl (village) from which they emerged.

The story begins in Hungary and moves to pre-war Vienna. Unlike the Rothchilds, Warburgs and other wealthy European Jewish families, the Reichmanns resisted assimilation, never abandoning their fundamentalist adherence to Jewish law. Fleeing the Nazis, the family made it to Tangiers. It was there in the International Zone with its utter absence of commercial restraints, among the Nazi agents and allied spies, that the modern family's patriarch, Samuel Reichmann, built a fortune as a currency trader.

After the war, the family immigrated to Canada, where Samuel and Renee's sons built an empire of their own. They began with small office buildings in Toronto, and went on to develop First Canadian Place. The Reichmanns then appeared on the international stage with the biggest real estate gamble New York City had ever seen, achieving a stunning triumph by building Wall Street's World Financial Center.

Paul Reichmann seemed infallible - and began to believe he was. Trained as a Rabbi, he became a capitalist daredevil and one of the most unusual entrepreneurs of the 20th Century. The family fortune swelled, and the Reichmanns seemingly single-handedly revitalized Jewish ultra Orthodoxy around the globe, giving away almost a billion dollars to charitable causes. Then came Canary Wharf, a property development project in London's East End backed by Margaret Thatcher. Despite numerous warning signs and the opposition of his brother Albert, Paul Reichmann found the challenge irresistible. Overcome by ego and his gambler's instinct, Paul risked everything on Canary Wharf.

When the project finally imploded, the family had lost ten billion dollars. Banks who had vied to lend hundreds of millions of dollars learned that the empire had become a house of cards. The Reichmanns, who had risen so far over the centuries, were ruined. But remarkably, the last chapter in the Reichmann saga had not been written. Paul Reichmann has staged a comeback, heading the now successful Canary Wharf.

As the Reichmann story unfolds the documentary examines the tensions between the family's ultra-Orthodox religious beliefs and their huge ambitions in the business world.

"RECOMMENDED. A lively in-depth portrait [and] well-told family history with a good balance of history, success, money, family, religion, and suspense." - MC Journal: the Journal of Academic Media Librarianship

"A slam dunk. A great story ... engrossing from opening theme to closing credits." - The Gazette (Montreal)